Badlands

From Custer, we headed to the badlands. They got their names from the travelers and trappers who, when they saw them, discovered that they were "Bad lands" to cross. We passed through Interior (pop 38) and Scenic (pop 10).
At one point as we were driving along the road, we saw a lump.
When we stopped, we discovered a rattler, getting some sun. Another day, we took a hike. When we stopped, we looked up a saw 2 prong horns about 10' away, watching us and being watched by a magpie.

Rawhide

On Monday, we went to the Custer State Park buffalo roundup. This is an event where they bring about 1500 animals into pens over a period of 4 or 5 days. Once inside, the buffalo are vaccinated and branded and some young ones culled out of the herd to be sold to breeders and to keep the herd at about 1000 head.
The cowboys and cowgirls who want to wrangle the buffalo put their names into a lottery. They have to prove they have the experience to herd the bison, including being able to use a bullwhip.
We watched them bring about 400 head to the pens. Close to the gate, about 40 head broke free,
lead by a huge bull who wanted no part of the action. We had been told that buffalo can run about 35 mph and now we believe it. It was exciting to watch the buffalo run at top speed and the cowboys chasing them as fast as their horse could go. They finally got them under control.

Nobody do Hoodoo like yoodoo

After leaving Yellowstone, we headed to Cody, WY. The roadside was littered with hoodoo's, vertical stones standing in the rough and rugged hills.


From Cody, we drove up the Bighorn Pass to 9033'. There was a lot of open range and we had to watch for cattle on the road. We stayed in a lovely National Forest campground. Our drive up the pass gave us 3.6 mpg but we made up for it on the way down with 46.1 mpg. We arrived in Sundance, WY. And from there, visited Devils Tower.

This is an Indian religious site that is in a National Park. We saw a number of climbers on the 867' face.


We also saw more Longhorn antelope/deer on the plains than we could count.
Next, we landed in Custer, SD and used this as our base for the next week. We first visited Jewel Caves and took a tour to 234' underground. We followed that with a visit to Custer State Park, where I fed the wild burrows on the roadside.

From there, we went to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial and viewed the carvings of the presidents.


The next day brought us to Crazy Horse Monument, a work that has been in progress for over 50 years.
When it is completed, it will be the largest carving in the world. The exhibit contains a scale model of what the finished carving will look like.

Back In The US continued...

Another trip had us watching a lone buffalo leading a line of cars up a hill. When we stopped to let him pass, he looked in our window and came close enough to the car for me to pet him.

Another feature was the downed trees. The Park Service lets nature take its own course. The Park has had some major fires in the past 50 years and if a tree falls, it stays where it falls.

Finally, the color of the geysers and the thermal activity was unbelievable. Every where one looked, the Park had beautiful scenery formed by the heat and bacteria, with colors that an artist would die for.

On a day trip to Mammoth Hot Springs, we spotted a 12 point elk.

On our way home, we saw coyote hunting.

Back In the US, Back In The US, Back In The US Of A!

We left Hyder and are beginning our trip back to the lower 48 and Yellowstone National Park. We will pass through Jasper National Park in Prince George, British Columbia and Banff National Park in Calgary, Alberta. Even though it is the end of August, we are still seeing snow on the mountain tops. We are also still seeing bears on the side of the road. Our lunch stop was at 6750'.

Once we arrived in the USA, the country became less mountainous with more rolling hills in Montana. We entered Yellowstone in Montana and within 2 miles, the Park became part of Wyoming.

One day, on our way to watch Old Faithful erupt, we saw an 8 point bull elk and his harem near the roadside.

Another day, we watched buffalo taking a steam bath in one of the many geysers.

When the bath was finished, a huge bull buffalo acted as a school crossing guard and stopped traffic to walk his herd cross the road. He and his buddy also blocked the cars so they could not move until the herd had crossed.



Continued tomorrow....

Muck Luck Chuck & Larry

We left Haines, Ak., for Hyder, Ak., about a 340 mile trip south, passing through Canada. Nostalgia is setting in as we realize our Alaska adventure is coming to an end.

We also noticed that the mountains had less snow and the days were getting darker earlier.

On our way north, we had stopped at Muck Luck Annies for a salmon bake and it was so good that we stopped again.

However, we were surprised that this was their last day of this season and possibly their last day ever. We had the salmon feast and took the free boat ride with Muck Luck Chuck at the helm. We got to see a momma moose and her baby.

We continued on the Cassiar Hwy, another dusty, bumpy ride with lots of frost heaves. Thanks to the Canadians for placing the little red flags on the side of the road to warn motorists of the dangerous driving conditions. We stayed in Stewart, B.C. and every day we crossed the border into Hyder. No customs into the US because the road dead ends but we had to pass through customs coming back into Canada each day.

We drove along the Glacier Hwy to view the toe and the summit of Salmon Glacier

as well as the icebergs that had fallen off of the glacier when it moved.

In addition to the glaciers, we saw the abandoned Premier copper mines and had some lovely views through the clouds. The next day, we saw a momma bear and her 2 cubs in a tree.

Having a Beary good time

After we left Valdez, we headed toward Haines, Ak. The first night we we stayed at a roadside and were treated to a lovely rainbow.



We had to go back into Canada, where we stayed at Million Dollar Falls at a spot on a river for 3 nights. The first day we took time to go bear watching and we spent about 1 ½ hours watching a black bear gorge himself on berries on the side of the road.



We were about 75' away and we could hear him grunting as he ate.


When we arrived in Haines, we visited Chilkoot Lake. The lake has a salmon counting station that is staffed by a ranger, who stands on a catwalk and counts the fish. The catwalk closes the lake except for a funnel that brings the fish to a central point so he can count them.



Somehow, the bears know to stay on one side of the lake and the humans who fish stay on the other, except for a young black bear who was apparently cut loose from his mother too early. The ranger had to have eyes in the back of his head because the bear wanted to walk onto the catwalk.



It was interesting to watch the ranger run off the bear by standing tall and walking aggressively toward him. We also saw a grizzly a little farther away. We also saw some eagles, but nothing in comparison to the 3500 – 4000 eagles that will arrive in September and spend the winter in the eagle preserve.